Few ‘best of’ lists are emboldened to go to the depths required of a Top 100, searching high and low for a well-rounded compilation of individuals who make the largest impressions. We took the bait and compiled our first ever Top 100 Social Influencers List. Polling various stakeholders in a range of verticals, the decidedly un-scientific result is this unique compilation of key social web players ranging from industry execs and startup entrepreneurs to celebrities and self-branding masterminds.

Intent on democratizing data, DataSift crossed the Atlantic November 16 to much anticipated applause for its US launch. The platform offers real-time social media data filtering in a disruptive and digestible way thanks to its unique relationship with Twitter. DataSift, sprung from Nick Halstead’s genius (the same guy responsible for TweetMeme) was in fact founded four years ago in the UK and has been busy perfecting and growing its social data arsenal so that the rest of us don’t have to.

Last week, Twylah co-Founder Eric Kim filled our readers in on the many ways his tool helps brands take Twitter to the next level by aggregating tweets on customized brand pages. Presiding over his company’s own tweeting is the other half of the Twylah equation, co-Founder Kelly Kim.

Etsy. The name alone conjures up images of grey woolen scarves made by loving hands around the family dining table. In fact, the vision is not far off. Hundreds of thousands of artists have flocked to set up ‘shop’ from the comfort of their own home, peddling their artistic or vintage wares in ways unimaginable at local craft fairs.

This article is part of a series titled “Social Success Stories” in which we explore social media successes by platforms and organizations.

Case studies provide marketers and organizations with the data they have been craving in the social media landscape to effectively leverage the new medium. In this article, we examine how one of the world’s largest IT corporations chose to embrace the social web to drive measurable results. By streamlining, harmonizing, personalizing and selling, organizations large and small can learn from Dell’s innovative approach in the sector.

Socialsign-on is a great solution to the problem that many people face: the need to have a unique user name and password for each web site that they use.

But once customers (either actual or potential) are logged into your site, that’s when the real work begins. That work is engaging those customers, keeping them engaged, and converting clicks into purchases.

So you’ve been looking at adding socialsign-on to your website. You’ve become acquainted with the social sign-on landscape, you’re familiar with the advantages of using social sign-on, and you’re ready to delve a little deeper into the subject.

Social media can make or break a brand and few industries have had to wrestle with the implications of our social era more briskly than hospitality. Customer perceptions can change in as little time as it takes to read the headline of a bad review on TripAdvisor. But the social world is a two-way street, with attentive brands successfully engaging with customers and earning new ones in the process.

One of the goals for a brand or firm using social media is to drive conversions. You want to turn those visits and clicks to sales. More importantly, you want those customers to keep coming back. Achieving that is definitely not easy.

Facebook recently got into trouble when it was revealed that they were behind a Google smear campaign. Essentially, Facebook hired a PR firm to get journalists and bloggers to write negative press about Google’s privacy policies and practices. The tactic backfired when some enterprising journalists did some research and found out that Facebook was behind the campaign.

Social Sign-On is a form of authentication that allows end-users to register and login to websites with existing social identities such as their Facebook, Google or Twitter accounts. With 75% of consumers inclined to leave websites that require registration, Social Sign-On remedies many common conversion headaches and has been quickly embraced. Additionally, it broadens reach, increases engagement and tap into valuable social APIs.

Social sign-on is an authentication method available on many websites where a person uses their social networking account login credentials as identification to "sign on" to other web sites. In laymen's terms, it's what allows you to login to other sites using your Facebook ID and Password (or Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo, etc). For a web site owner or administrator, there are many questions and concerns that need to be addressed about this relatively new technology. Below is a list of questions to ask before you decide to implement a social sign-on solution for your web site:

If you’re using Facebook to market your business or service, you’ve probably invested a lot of time and effort, and maybe even a little money, into that. And, like any investment, you want to see a return.

LinkedIn has long been known as the place to network and find a job. In the past few years it has broken that mold and turned into a community of top professionals looking to share insights and build stronger businesses.